Hunting for Targets
This portion of the guide is just a list of various tools you should be aware about when trying to hunt down targets. General Idea Behind Hunting - Any good player could assess the strengths and weaknesses of their own fleet and the opposing enemy's fleet, and could generally figure out who would win in a battle. So, more often than not your random roving gang requires trapping an enemy or surprising the enemy, using bait tactics, cloaking ships or other tools. Link Destination in Fleet Chat for Simplicity - Ideally, you had selected a destination for your group, and preferably a certain system where you would generally be heading towards. Type in the system name in fleet chat, highlight it with your mouse, right click the highlighted system name, hit "autolink" and select "Solar System". Be careful of the distinction between O's and 0's, or I's and l's. Once it is orange, enter it into chat and tell people to right click it and set their destination. This way, they have a clear understanding of which stargates to jump to when you tell them to, which is good for your Scouts and gang. On the other hand, with a large enough gang where you feel a spy may be on board, you may not want your gang to know exactly where you're headed at all times. Sending a Scout Ahead - A scout should generally be a frigate (either t1 or t2) or a fast cruiser like the Minmatar Stabber. For more advanced scouts, you may wish to use a Cov Ops ship (t1 Frigate that can fit a Cov Ops cloak to warp while cloaked) or a Force Recon ship (Cruiser that can fit a Cov Ops cloak to warp while cloaked). Be careful though since Cov Ops and especially Recons cost a lot more to lose than a cheap Frigate. The general method of moving fast with a scout is to have the scout warp to a gate, with the bulk of the gang aligning towards the next stargate. Once the scout jumps into the next system and informs you of the system being clear of hostiles (or preferably, has hostiles that can you handle), then have your gang warp to the next gate and jump through. Repeat the procedure system to system and you can move the slow, clunky Battleships in your gang around very safely. If your scout encounters a group that you want to evade, you should either: (a) dock in stations, if any; (b) travel the other direction; © warp to an POS, hopefully an armed one; or (d) warp the gang to a pre-made safespot. Scouts can also be good as bait, although before sending a more expensive ship that can take a beating, such as a Drake (Caldari Battlecruiser), you may wish to know exactly know what the group you're baiting is bringing to the table. Scouts are also good for scanning down enemy ratters. The most efficient way to scan down (not probe) a target in a neighboring system to your gang, do the following: (1) Right click empty space, and hit "Show Solar System in Mapbrowser". Look at the constellation map, and click on the system you are about to enter. Look at the system map (at the bottom), and see the distance of each portion of the system. Figure out as many remote spots (usually planets) so if you scan while warping around you probably scanned the entire system. Jump into the system. (2) Scan at the furthest range at 360 degrees. If you see a ship in your scanner (and no control tower, if they're on your overview), then you found a ship that is either: (a) at a place you can warp to; or (b) safespotting. Lower the degrees you are scanning, and change the camera frame around to attempt to narrow down your search, hopefully to a belt. If you have your scanner at 5 degrees and a little triangular belt is in the exact middle of your screen, and you see a ratting ship on your scanner, then it is probably at the belt. (3) If you did not find anyone on your first scan, warp to the next planet and repeat #2, then to the next if you have another spot to warp to. You may also wish to check the number of belts in a system when you enter, and go to the planet(s) with the most numbers of belts first to increase the chances of finding which belt the ratter is in. You must be quick however, ratters often fit their ships with cloaks and will align, warp to a safespot and cloak. Take a look at Scanning. Stationary Scouts - A stationary scout is exactly that, a scout that tends to sit in one place. For those with multiple accounts, stationary scouts are easy to maintain. The best stationary scout is a second character on a different account not affiliated with Goonswarm, Greater Goon, or its allies, and in either a cloaking Covert Ops (t2 frigate) or Force Recon (t2 cruiser), that sits generally on grid (in sight of, but not very close to) a high transit stargate near to where you can be. This scout will be anonymous (although enemies may assume the neutral in local is a hostile scout) and can relay the ship types of enemies that jump through. On the other hand, even an affiliated character in a station can serve to watch hostile groups entering an exiting a system. You should also be aware that when entering near the home systems of our enemies, as we often fight morons that take this game way too seriously and yes, they will have multiple accounts and will have stationary scouts at key points around their home. Gatecamp - Gatecamping is great for lazy people, and can be a very good way to catch and kill neutral or hostile ships. The most successful gatecamps have interdictors (regular or heavy), mobile warp disruptors, and/or fast frigates that can tackle. Multiple sensor boosters, scripted for scan resolution, will improve the locking speed of your tackler's, thus destroyers, with many midslots to fit sensor boosters, tend to be first tacklers. Having a scout, preferably in a cloaking ship on the other side of the gate, is useful so that you will not get surprised by a larger gang. The primary advantage of an interdictor bubble is that they can be deployed instantly. The primary advantage of the mobile warp disruptor is that it will suck in any ship that warped along a path in line to the bubble, but would have stopped short of the bubble. So, if someone warps to a stargate at 100km hoping just to scout whose at the gate then leave, with a mobile warp disruptor placed correctly he may get pulled all the way towards the bubble just 20km off the gate. All you have to do is line up the bubble with the gate and the place from which you believe the enemy will warp in from. Gatecamps are best placed on heavily trafficked areas, such as the entrances to regions, and most effectively, the gates bordering lowsec and highsec (such as L4x-Skarkon gate). Using the Starmap to Hunt - The starmap has useful tools on it. Playing around with it can yield good results for finding where enemies live. The starmap can show you the average number of players in a system over a given half hour, the number of pirate ships killed (to find places your enemies may be ratting), the numbers of ships destroyed (for enemy gangs) and any open cynosaural fields (for a quick gank of an enemy's frozen-stiff cyno alt).